Emma's second day of school

Emma seems to be adjusting well to preschool. She was especially excited to find out that she needed a lunch box for Mommy made lunches at school.

We are all things princess in our house right now, much to Dan's dismay :)
Posing with Daddy before school
You may be wondering what Ian is up to while Emma is at school....

Loving the Exersaucer

Playing with toys

and of course, posing for Mommy!

Emma goes to Preschool

Emma hit another milestone today with her very first day of preschool. There were no tears (from any of us) but then again we did not actually have to leave her today. :) Thursday will be her first full day.
We started off with a good breakfast

Cinnamon Toast

and Grapes

Getting ready to go

all smiles

Emma first gravitated to the Playdoh

Car graphing

Emma getting ready for circle time. She chose her letter "E" to sit on

Then she had fun on the playground

In other news, look who is almost sitting up

and this is how Emma holds on to Ian when I have to run to get his bottle

Overalls are good for something :)

Surviving (and Possibly Enjoying) the Daddy-Daughter Weekend

Before the start of moving activities and getting locked into Emma's demanding preschool schedule, Sara took the opportunity to head back to Virginia this past weekend to visit her folks and attend a friend's baby shower. As Ian still flies free (and sleeps on planes), he went along with to chaperon, leaving Emma and I to enjoy a 3 day Daddy/Daughter weekend. While this seemed like no big deal at the time of planning, especially in the face of the additional airline ticket price I would have to pay to send Emma as well, as the weekend approached, it became more clear to me the potential pitfalls that await this endeavor.

I needed a plan to keep us both busy and entertained, eliminating any potential down time where crankiness and temper-tantrums could erupt. On previous occasions where I've been left with both Emma and Ian for evenings while Sara went out with friends, I've often employed the drive around tactic. This allows me to get a lot of errands done while using seat belt laws to keep them stationary until they fall asleep. However, this tactic does not seem to scale to a full 3 day weekend as it would require a lot of time in the car (though I did consider driving down to Disneyland).

Instead, I came up with a much simpler plan, which worked great, that I would like to pass along as advice to other Dads out there that may face this circumstance. My plan was simply: STAY OUT OF THE HOUSE. The house, while seemingly the safest place, if full of landmines and much better terms can be negotiated upon leaving the house. My arguments for this simple plan are as follows:

1. You are not king of the castle, they are. Lets face it, they know your house better than you, as they spend a lot more time in it, so there is no place to hide. While you're away at work, they are at home finding every one of your hiding spots. Without Mom or a sibling to distract them, they will track you down with amazing efficiency. If you leave the house, the playing field is leveled.

2. The house contains their toys that will be used against you. In as much as your hope when you bought these toys was to distract your child for a bit so you could relax, these toys will be used against you, either in annoyance of a repeating activity or physically as a weapon. Take the below picture as an example. We bought Emma this nursery rhyme player when she was one year old in the hopes that she might take it to a quiet part of the house and sing along to the tunes. Rather, during a brief spell this weekend while we were stuck at home with nothing to do, this harmless toy is being bashed against my leg and knee, to the tune of "Hickory, Dickory, Dock", as an outlet for her boredom. Removing the child from the house eliminates access to these instruments of pain and annoyance.

From Daddy/Daughter Weekend

3. The novelty of leaving the house can lead to much better negotiating terms. As an example, I often offer Emma the opportunity to join me on a bike ride, during which she excitedly agrees to be strapped down to the bike seat for up to an hour. Alternatively, we went kayaking this weekend, during which time Emma sat in her seat for the better part of a hour. Name me any in-house activity where you could get your child to remain stationary for an hour, voluntarily!

4. Removing the child from the house will keep the house in some semblance of order, so you don't have to clean before your wife comes home. I would also extend this to say don't eat at home as a simple thing like cleaning up the leftovers will offer your child lightly supervised time, during which some other room in the house will fall from cleanliness.

While I say all of this with a great deal of sarcasm and the admission that Emma is a very well behaved child, I stand by the underlying logic of this plan and highly recommend this for your next weekend alone with your child.

As proof of its effectiveness, I present the activities from our successful Daddy/Daughter weekend (sorry for the poor quality cell phone picts).

Day 1: Friday

As no day during the mortgage process would be complete without a long and frustrating conversation with the bank, we started our day there, where Emma helped herself to the lollipops and made herself comfortable:

After a lunch at Emma's favorite lunch location, Red Robin, we headed up to The Exploratorium in San Francisco. This is a great, hands-on, science museum for kids. Well worth a half day visit if you come visit San Francisco. Some of the exhibits included:

Black Sand and Magnets:

A Very Long Echo Tube:

A Musical Instruments inside sound dampened rooms:

And outside the museum, the folks at Nintendo set up a Wii resort, complete with leis, that Emma refused to be pictured with.

Total Time spent in House: 1.5 Hours

Day 2: Saturday

Saturday was too nice a day to spend indoors, we ventured out for a day of outdoor festivities. After a great breakfast of Micky Mouse pancakes and Chocolate Waffles at Stacks in Campbell (highly recommended), we biked from Campbell to Los Gatos:

we went kayaking on the Vasona Reservoir:

practiced our duck calls with the safety whistle on our life jacket (which I'm sure was perfectly clean):

enjoyed a healthy picnic lunch:

went on a train and the carousel:

did some climbing on the playground:

biked back to the car, went to soccer practice, and finished off the day with church (Thank You nursery workers.)

Total Time spent in House: 2 Hours

Day 3: Sunday

No pictures to share for Sunday, but having used all my good ideas on the previous 2 days, we spent most of this day riding around on the bike to friends houses in order to avoid our own house. We did return home for a few hours, when I, miraculously, got her to take a 2 hour nap! Upon waking up, I rushed her back out of the house, wired her on Ice Cream at 9PM at night, so she could stay up until Sara's flight arrived at 11:30 PM.

Total Time spent in House: 4 hours (2 hours napping!)

P.S. For those wives out there that doubt the ability of the husband to handle this, please note the following observations from the above pictures:

1. Emma was dressed everyday, in different cloths (that were not laid out by mom), that were clean, and possibly matched.

2. Emma's hair was brushed everyday

3. Emma even took a bath

Fourth Month Old Little Man

Ian, our Little Man turned 4 months old yesterday! He had his four month doctors appointment today and after not gaining much weight his first 2 months, is now slowly climbing up the growth chart. He now weighs 13 lbs 7oz (21st percentile), he is 24 and3/4 inches (44.5th percentile) and his head circumference was 43 (71st percentile).

He does have a rather big head :)
Developmentally, Ian loves to smile, he giggles when you tickle his tummy, and he loves to coo and "talk". He is going a great job at holding his head up during tummy time

and just this week he had started rolling from his tummy to his back.
Ian loves sucking on his fingers (even more than a pacifier) and he is becoming quite the drool monster :)
He also blesses us now by sleeping from 11:00-7:30 every night.
Ian has a really easy going personality. He loves playing on his activity mat and is starting to grab onto toys. Every day we fall more in love with this little guy.

In other news, Daddy came back from Virginia sick with the flu and he decided to share it with this one....

Right after Emma enjoyed the Shaved Ice at the annual Google Picnic, she came down with a high fever and our on the go girl has pretty much been laid out on the couch for the last five days. She was diagnosed today with walking pneumonia and with the help of antibiotics should be on the mend in the next few days. Luckily, Ian and I have been spared from the yucky sickness. I have been busy packing, packing, and packing. Our move happens next week! Ian and I will be in Virginia for the weekend for a friend's baby shower and would love to see anyone who is in town :)

Guess what we are up to???

Well, after living in California for 2 years we have finally gone and done it. In just 3 weeks we will moving into our new home and officially become homeowners once again.

It took us a long time to find just the right house for us and in the land of single level ranches, we finally found a newer community that we felt comfortable with...

Not to mention it bears and slight resemblance to our former house in Virginia...

I have been busy beginning the packing and purging process. It is amazing how much stuff we have accumulated in the 2 years we have lived in this house.
We now will once again have 4 bedrooms and we love having visitors :)

Ardenwood Farm

Last Sunday, we met one of Dan's coworkers and his family at a pretty farm about 30 minutes from our house. We had a great time seeing the animals, riding an old fashion train, and eating fruit right off the vine. It was a beautiful day and everyone enjoyed the visit.

Emma enjoys petting a horse

and telling us about it

Ian entertained himself with a fascinating new toy... his hands

Ian enjoyed just being outside in the sunshine

Emma pumps some water

Emma and a sneaky goat

Ian's new trick...blowing bubbles

This is what happens when Daddy gets Ian too close to the sheep

Emma enjoyed the sheep, though

Making Ice Cream

The whole group

Daddy got caught"red handed" eating off the mulberry tree

Emma enjoyed the grapes

and apples

Ian finally catches some z's

Riding on the train